Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving this year was a bit of a whirlwind. We made a bunch of pies and then spent the day with Jerad's family.


We only took pictures of the pies and nothing else, oops. If anyone got a pic of Marsh and wanted to send it to me, that'd be great.

So, pies. Pies are kind of our thing. Besides the 5 we made for Thanksgiving dinner, we made another 2 for a co-worker. I think it was last year that we made 16? Anyways, we heart pies in a major way. You name it, we'll make it. This year we made:

Peach

Cherry

Pecan
(this is my fav pecan pic recipe. No corn syrup! We also added a little bit of chocolate chips on the bottom crust, and 1/4 brandy. Delish)

Banana Cream

Apple
(my own recipe that changes depending on my mood)


This is the recipe we used for the crusts.

We were planning on visiting my grandma and grandpa in Arizona and decided the easiest way would be to leave that night, right after dinner. I was pretty nervous driving that far with Marshall. We've done a few trips to San Diego, San Fransisco, San Ramon, and Palo Alto, but for most of them he was younger and slept longer stretches. My grandparents aren't in the best health and haven't gotten to meet Marsh yet so we decided to just go for it. We left around 7:00pm and drove to Cathedral City (Palm Springs Area). My grandma owns a house there and it is about half way to where she is in Arizona so spending the night there makes the trip much easier. The drive took around 6 hours and Marshall slept the whole time. Score.

Friday Marshall and I hung out and watched movies (bad mommy!) while Jerad worked on work stuff and we waited for the rest of my family to arrive. Everyone got there by 5 and we went out to dinner. Saturday we left sometime between 8 and 9 am and drove to Chandler AZ (Phoenix suburb). We hit a little traffic and that drive took around 6 hours as well. Marshall got a little impatient but for the most part was fine.

My grandma was soooo excited to see the baby, it was 110% worth it.


She had a stroke a few years ago and can have pretty crazy mood swings. Loud noises set her off sometimes so I was praying that Marshall would be good and not cry. He was quite the charmer! He flirted and giggled and let her hold him. Then we went and visited my grandpa in the Alzheimer facility he lives in. That's always hard. This is the 4th time we've visited him there and the first time I haven't ended up crying when we leave.

After we left, we went to dinner with my parents, sisters, uncle, and grandma. Marshall was a trooper however he refused to take a nap. He woke up about 2 hours before we got to Chandler and stayed away for the whole visit. He ended up being up for 8 hours, the longest stretch ever. After dinner we drove back to Cathedral City.

That was probably the longest 6 hours of my life. Marsh screamed the ENTIRE way back. It was awful. He was so upset it was like his carseat was filled with needles. I thought he was going to pass out. We stopped probably 6 times on the way back. The second I'd lift him out of his seat he'd be fine. Between having already driven 6 hours and being awake for 8 hours he was just not feelin the drive. He was also teething. I have lots of homeopathic remedies that probably would have helped, but I left them all in our suitcase. Major Fail.

Somehow we all made it back alive (poor Addy had decided to ride in our car and wanted to jump out the window about 40 minutes into the drive) and got to sleep. The next morning we packed up and headed home. After the previous night's driving fiasco I was dreading the trip home but it went well. We stopped at an Ikea and bought a few things including a 1st B-day present for Marshall so at least we're covered there.

I'm so glad we got to see my grandparents and they got to meet Marshall. And besides the 6 hours of screaming hell, he was a little angel:)

We got back Sunday night and Jerad had to turn around and leave at 3am and drive to San Diego for a installation job there. It ended up taking longer than planned and he didn't get back till Thursday night. So he worked like crazy and I got to be a single mom for 4 days. We were both a little tired come Friday. Luckily we're having a low key weekend to recoup a little, phew!

What we've been eating

Lately we've been in kind of a cooking rut. We keep eating the same things over and over and spending way too much at the market. I decided to stop being lazy and do a little meal planning. I love Martha Stewart Every Day Food recipes because they are usually quick to make, and have easy to find ingredients which is perfect since we both work full time and don't have hours to devote to cooking.

Because I picked recipes that had a lot of ingredients in common, I was able to only spend $83 for the week. That included milk and a few other things we were out of, and mostly organic. We had all of the spices already so that saved a lot. We had leftover for lunches, and already had breakfast stuff. Usually we don't have meat every night, but that's just how it worked out this week.


Sunday: Greek Chicken Cutlets


This was such a great way to start off a week of new recipes! Delicious. Jerad doesn't usually like klamata olives, and even he gobbled this up. We made extra of the tomato/olive/feta mixture and tossed it with some romaine for a greek-ish salad, and each had a piece of sourdough bread toasted with some earth balance and garlic. This one will be going into our recipe rotation for sure.


Monday: Fast Chicken Fajitas


These were good. We normally have fajitas about once a week to use up any left-over veggies we have.

Tuesday: Broiled Salmon with Spinach-and-Feta Saute

This was another to die for recipe. I was too cheap to buy pine nuts for $8/bag so we omitted those. We also sliced some heirloom tomatoes, topped them with some mozzarella slices, basil, and cracked pepper and broiled them just long enough for the cheese to melt. If you've never had tomatoes this way I highly suggest it.

Wednesday: Cayenne-Rubbed Chicken with Avocado Salsa


I think I could eat this every night for the rest of my life and die happy. I made some beans (kidney beans, onion, garlic, cumin, pepper, lime juice) and rice to go on the side. We turned the leftovers into burritos for lunch the following day.

Thursday: In n Out

Thursday we had dinner at Jerad's parent's house and they brought In n Out. I could also probably eat this every day and die happy:) We had been planning on making this, and made it for lunch on Saturday instead. We made a double batch and froze 1/2 for a night when we don't feel like cooking.

Friday: Emerils Fish Provencal

This was the big flop of the week. We used Mahi (I only wanted to buy 2 types of fish so I chose mahi and salmon), and substituted yellow squash for the zucchini. Jerad got a little excited with the black pepper and red pepper flakes and it was overpowering. It also was not filling enough to be a meal, you would definitely need some pasta or rice or something else. We won't be having this again.

Saturday: Baked Flounder with Roasted Tomatoes


This was good! We substituted Mahi for the flounder, and cottage cheese for the mayo (we both hate mayo). Along with the tomatoes we roasted the left over yellow squash we had.

Next week will be a weird food week because of Thanksgiving and then we're going to Arizona to see my grandparents for the weekend. Jerad might be working out of town a few days in the beginning of the week and if that happens I usually have soup, stir fried veggies, or something else that I can throw together and only get one pot dirty:)

Oh hi, I'm still here!

I'm not doing well with the new time change. I have no energy and blogging has taken a back seat. However, now that we have a baby people seem to want to keep updated so here's what's new:

Marshall had his first spill.

While my mom was babysitting him she laid him down for a nap in her bed, surrounding him with pillows. He managed to wake up, scoot over all of the pillows, and off the edge. He got a little rug burn on his forehead and nose. I think she cried more than he did! I know something like that happens to just about all babies, so to be honest I was just glad it wasn't my fault:)

The worst part was it happened 2 days before we were having his 6 month pictures done so we had to postpone them. We didn't want to commemorate the fall with professional pictures:) If it stops raining long enough, we'll do them this weekend. Hopefully in time for Christmas Cards!


Marshall is getting very good at sitting up! He can't get up all by himself yet, but if you put him in a sitting position he will stay there basically until he gets bored with it. He can reach around him or lean over and pick up things then come back up.

For his baby shower we got the same outfit in a few different sizes so I'm going to try to take similar pictures with him wearing it to compare the different ages. Here he is at 2 weeks:


And at 6 months:


If I remember, we have another that should fit him between 9 and 12 months.

6 months has been such a fun age so far! He is so playful and loves being tossed around, swung, tickled, and cuddled.





He is still a big-time bath fan. Whenever I can I put him in the bottom of the tub while I'm taking a shower and he scoots around splashing and laughing.


His chubby little thighs have almost outgrown the bumbo, so we got him a tie chair to sit in while he watches daddy or mommy cooking.


Its perfect! I love how it folds up so small for taking to restaurants! He loves to watch and listen to us making dinner, but is still not eating solids so we didn't want to buy a high chair that would be taking up our precious kitchen real estate.

When we are cooking we always narrate what we are doing, show him the different vegetables and tell him what they are called, let him smell them, he gets really into it. I wonder if anyone's first word has been 'olive oil?'

Cause they're pretty much the same thing

I ordered this:
And received this:


Awesome.

These are a few of my favorite things

Hats on babies. Kill me now:


I know right?

Daddy reading to baby:



Marshall loves books. LOVES them. When I'm not feeling up to getting on the floor and playing or taking a walk, we just lay in bed and I read out loud whatever book I'm currently working on and he'll sit and listen for about 30 minutes. If its a kids book with pictures, he goes nuts! He loves to turn the pages and look at all the pictures.

Jerad also brought home this little treat last time he was out of town for business:

It is the most amazing play mat ever! First of all, its huge. Also it has a mirror, squeakers, different textures, and lots of bright things that Marshall thinks are veeeeery interesting. Since I've been home sick all week, this mat has been a lifesaver as far as keeping him occupied. He likes to bite/suck/lick the baby in the mirror. While growling....


I'm not sure if he'll ever learn to crawl, because as soon as you put him on his stomach, he does this superman thing all the while kicking and flailing like crazy:


If he was in a pool with some floaties, I'm sure he'd speed off. Well, that's what we've been up to lately.
Hugs!

Look who's sitting up:

6 months

Marshall is 6 months old today. As in 1/2 of a year. In some ways it seems like he's always been a part of our lives, and in other ways it seems like the time has flown by at a record pace. He changes so much and every month is better than the one before it.

We just took him to his first doctor's appointment and he got a clean bill of health. He is now 26.5 inches (about 60th percentile) and 16lbs 6 oz (around 40th percentile). He has exactly doubled his birth weight, and grown 7 inches since birth. So far besides a stuffy nose for a few days, he hasn't been sick, had an ear infection, or anything else. Heck, he hasn't even had a diaper rash!

His new favorite thing is the jumper:




He bounces, spins around, and swings.

In the last month he gave up the cute babbling and "dadadadad" and "babababababa's" and now just Shrieks. Yes, with a capital "S." He likes to vary the pitch and duration, you know, just to spice it up a little.

Breastfeeding is still going well, we've made it to 6 months with no supplementing and plan to keep going as long as possible. The logistics of breastfeeding and working full time suck. I envy the moms who don't have to deal with pumping 3-4 times a day, measuring ounces, and washing bottles! We haven't introduced any solids yet and don't plan to for some time. I talked to our pediatrician about it at his 6 month appointment and she recommends wasting till 9 months unless he starts wanting to nurse every hour and doesn't ever seem to get full. At that point we plan on skipping all the cereals and "baby food" purees and just giving him chunks of what we're eating. We have a different vegetable every night so he should get a good variety.

He loves to roll around and can quickly go from front to back then back to front again. If he's on the floor and there is a toy out of reach he will flip and scoot until he can grab it and get it in his mouth. Sometimes he will sit unassisted for 30 seconds or so, otherwise he can sit with minimal assistance. He also can FINALLY put his pacifier back in the right way if he drops it, even in his sleep. We aren't really encouraging the crawling per se, and instead are trying to enjoy this time where he's not really mobile and we don't have to chase him around and baby proof everything. Although I know the crawling will be adorable, I hope he holds off till after Christmas. I'd love to have a non barricaded tree:)

In the meantime he seems perfectly content:






Right now he goes to bed between 6 and 7pm, gets a dreamfeed before I go to bed at 10, and usually only wakes once around 2 or 3 to nurse, then sleeps until 5 when we get up for the day. We get up so early so that we have some baby-time before we have to get ready and both go to work. Then there are the occasional nights where he'll sleep for 6-8 hours straight, and the nights when he wakes up every 2 hours all night long. We just kind of go with the flow around here. He starts the night off in his crib and I just lay him in there fully awake once he's showing signs of being sleepy, and he lays his little head down and goes right to sleep with no crying. The first time he wakes up we bring him in our bed and if he's sleeping happily we love to have him cuddle with us all night, but most of the time he tosses and rolls and fusses so we put him back in his crib where he'll conk out and not move until morning. Usually when Jerad is gone Marshall will tolerate being in our bed more, I think he just likes the extra space and with 3 of us in a queen there isn't a ton of space to go around.

The morning is his favorite time and he loves to get in our bed and talk, roll, sit up, grab our faces, and giggle. Its the only thing that makes 5am bearable!



Can't wait to see what the next month will bring!

Our little chili pepper

First Halloween

Animal Names

Most parents teach their children the names of different animals. Apparently I need to teach my husband.

(Convo a few nights ago about different kinds of pets)

Jerad: You know, those fluffy things.
Me: ????
Jerad: Um, they have two names... and one of them is like the name of another animal.
Me: .... the hell!?!
Jerad: They have fur!
Me: What do they look like? Do they have tails?
Jerad: You get like two of them and they breed like rabbits.
Me: ...but they're not rabbits...

Finally we establish that he's talking about Guinea Pigs.

You know, those fluffy things with fur with two names (one of them is like the name of another animal) that breed like rabbits.